Blaise Pascal said that “God created man in his own image, and man returned the compliment”. Not only do I run this risk by doing this exercise, I am potentially falling into the very trap I warned about. If only I get these sacramental beliefs right, make the list all numbered and clean, then I will have God all sorted and can live on my own terms.
Part of resisting this is to hear what others say and think. This is the space for that. Since that is my 12 SBs you are now free to comment away.
Rough against rough 
Hi Justin,
I have not thought carefully enough to word it elegantly enough to be an extra SB, but I think another one is needed encompassing the concept that life is gratefulness. You have very appropriately focused upon grace. The response to grace must be gratefulness which encompasses worship and obedience. That takes the self improvement aspect out of “Put to death”, “live in the Spirit” etc. Also another one is that God is good. If that is a foundational belief, it enables us to cope with the stuff of life and the confusion of some scripture stories. It also is critical to teach to the next generation before they reject christianity because of the violence they see in scripture.
Love,
Dad
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Hi Justin, I’m loving your blog. Would you consider adding anything about us being made for God’s pleasure?
Or anything on our purpose e.g. ‘to glorify God and enjoy him forever’ (shorter catechism)? Although that may not fall into the SB category.
(also posted something just now on SB 8)
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Hi. Glad you like it. Will consider anything 😀. I would personally tend to see this under becoming a child of God.
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Hey, so I’m up to date now. Really enjoying your reflections and photos.
On board with pretty much all your SBs too. However…
“Here goes a question to make yourself appreciated at parties – are people basically good with a bit of bad, for basically bad with a bit of good? Going a step further, after the fall are…?.I have heard arguments both ways but for me, more and more, I find myself in the latter camp.
I think that underneath our veneer of respectability we are nasty pieces of work. True, some are really bad but I think it is a matter of degree. I think it was Victor Frankle who, while giving evidence at the Nuremberg trials, realised that we all have the potential given the right (or wrong) conditions to be the ones in the dock.
In particular, I think material wealth and societal institutions can hide our true natures. Take those away and watch the results. Think Syria. Watch what people do when a state collapses. Watch what happens when people’s wealth is threatened. Think back to after the earthquakes in Christchurch and the way large sections of society viewed their insurance and what they tried to claim. Think that lawyers say that you don’t really know someone until they are a beneficiary of a Will. We may look nice but strip things away and watch the results.”
I’m not with you on this one. The topic reminds me of a lecturer I had back at College of Ed who rephrased the question as “Are you gold covered with shit or shit covered with gold?” He was a Humanist, so went for the former. A number of branches of Christianity agree with you and pump for the latter – there are plenty of fans of the Doctrine of Total Depravity out there. (A couple of lines from Bob Dylan’s ‘Saved’ come to mind: “I was blinded by the Devil / Born already ruined / Stone cold dead as I stepped out of the womb”) However, I’m not a fan, for a number of reasons. I’ll lay out a couple here and perhaps that can start a conversation.
First of all, like Frankle (if I’ve read the above right) I’m sure that we all have the capacity to do horrendous evil. But that does not mean that we naturally will it or default towards it.
Nor do I think that material wealth and societal institutions are all that is holding back the tide of evil that humans would unleash given the opportunity. Perhaps I am naive here (decent chance of that), but I suspect that most people’s natural inclination is to want to live in peace with their neighbours. We get taught to hate and discriminate, but I’m not sure it’s a reflection of our true selves.
Biblically, my first appeal would be to the Creation myths in Genesis, particularly the parts that refer to humans as ‘good’ and loved by God in the first instance. Plus there’s the idea of being created in ‘the image of God’, which can be taken to mean various things, but I don’t think is compatible with total depravity. Sure, human sin is damaging in so many ways and we desperately need God’s antidote. But an antidote by definition restores health. It doesn’t transform the basic nature of the recipient.
Over to you! 🙂
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Okay, give me a few days and I will get back to you. However, my first thought is that ultimately I am trying to really drive home that you can’t redeem yourself through your own efforts. My concern with the gold covered with shit angle is that there is an implication that you might be able to clean yourself up given enough time and effort.
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So I have thought a bit more about this.
First, from memory this is not the first time we have discussed this. I suspect that our respective opinions are heavily influenced by our natural levels of optimism. 🙂
I think the main issue here is that essentially the “are we hold covered in shit it shit covered with gold” is complicated by the fact that it is a metaphor. It is like the truth, but is not THE truth. There are of course many ways to assess the strength of the metaphor, but one way is highly practical – where does it lead you?
Like you I think that theologically we more like “gold covered with shit” and there are benefits to seeing it that way. However, as I said previously, it does run the risk of leading you to the conclusion that you just need to work a bit harder to clean yourself up. I think this is a huge problem and is not the Christian message.
I suppose I think that our existence is more defined by the muck, or perhaps the all pervasiveness of the muck. Pushing another metaphor, perhaps it is like we are bright metal that tarnishes when exposed to the atmosphere (my chemistry is letting me down here). It is a losing battle to keep ahead of the tarnish, what we need is a new atmosphere.
Might have to work on that one a bit.
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